Bodies and their spaces : system, crisis and transformation in early modern theatre / [Russell West-Pavlov].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

West-Pavlov, Russell, 1964-

Series:

Costerus ; new ser., v. 156.

Costerus new series ; 156

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600--History and criticism.

English drama.

Gender identity in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Theater and society--England--History.

Theater and society.

Theater--Great Britain--History--16th century.

Theater.

Theater--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York, NY : Rodopi, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Bodies and their Spaces: System, Crisis and Transformation in Early Modern Theatre explores the emergence of the distinctively modern "gender system" at the close of the early modern period. The book investigates shifts in the gendered spaces assigned to men and women in the "public" and "private" domains and their changing modes of interconnection; in concert with these social spaces it examines the emergence of biologically based notions of sex and a novel sense of individual subjectivity. These parallel and linked transformations converged in the development of a new gender system which more efficiently enforced the requirements of patriarchy under the evolving economic conditions of merchant capitalism. These changes can be seen to be rehearsed, contested and debated in literary artefacts of the early modern period - in particular the drama. This book suggests that until the closure of the English theatres in 1642, the drama not only reflected but also exacerbated the turbulence surrounding gender configurations in transition in early modern society. The book reads a wide range of dramatic and non-dramatic texts, and interprets them with the aid of the "systems theory" developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Staging Gendered Space

Ch. 1: Divide and Rule: The Early Modern Gender System and Private Space

Ch. 2: The Difference that Makes a Difference: Emergent Gender Systems

Ch. 3: The Observer Observed: Differentiation and the Theatrical System

Ch. 4: Posing Manliness: Work and Space as Paradigms of Early Modern Masculinity

Ch. 5: The Aporias of Masculinity: Systemic Interpenetration and Systemic Instability

Ch. 6: Author of Himself: Masculinity, Civility and the Closure of the Body

Ch. 7: Leaky Vessels: Femininity, the Humoral Economy and Systemic Boundaries

Ch. 8: Women's Worlds: Women in the Public Sphere: Space, Community, Language

Ch. 9: Redrawing the Boundaries: Emergent Gender Spaces on the Stage

Conclusion: The Alteration in Apparel: Cross-Dressing and the Emergent Gender System

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

94-012-0155-2

1-4237-9090-1

OCLC:

714567332

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401201551 DOI